These very creative boys gathered almost all our toy buckets and blocks to pile on the brown carpet. This was the beginning of their SHIP creation. They planned to sail away to Mexico and decided that all these things were necessary for their voyage. It took them 30 minutes to build and we left it up for the entire class. At clean-up time it took (to my surprise) only 5 minutes for everything to get put back where it belonged. I was very proud of their building and cleaning efforts.

On Monday and Tuesday our classes went outside to collect leaves, sticks, pine cones, grass and dirt. These items got put onto papers with a ton of glue for very individual amazing creations. We discussed concepts we learned from our Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! book about why the leaves were brown and why they fall off the trees.

We also began learning about the letter B- Bouncy Ben. We learned his song and completed some of the work in our workbooks. Some of the children wanted more time to finish their work so they look it home. Please return these books next week.

Thanksgiving is coming up this weekend so we had a discussion about what we are thankful for. Feel free to have a look at the list posted in the classroom. Have a safe and happy weekend!

Val is coming! Val is coming!!

We got to meet Val- Mrs. P this week as she will be coming to take Miss Frieze's place over the next 3 weeks.We read stories with her, played games and made funny faces. Everyone seemed alright with the idea of a new teacher for a little while. Mrs. P is normally a teacher from the Day Care so she knows lots of fun activities and songs for the children to do.

Books we read this week.Leaves Leaves Leaves!! This is a great story about Buddy Bear and his Mom that helps us learn about the chemicals in leaves that keep them looking green through the summer. It explains that the yellow and orange colors are always in the leaf, but they are green due to the chlorophyll in them. In the fall when days are shorter there is less chlorophyll so the leaves change back to orange and yellow. We also learn about how a leaf bud opens in the spring to let the leaf out.

Autumn's First Leaf a great story about Pointy who has been green all his life but suddenly begins to turn yellow. Will his friends still like him if he is a different color?

Give Thanks- The Berenstain Bears get ready for Thanksgiving in this story. Sister Bear meets a new friend Squanto the Turkey but her Dad wants to have him for Thanksgiving dinner. (we skipped over the religious parts) Will Sister Bear get a new pet, or will Father Bear get a big feast?